With today’s vast internet resource, it is possible to appear knowledgeable on subjects hitherto the exclusive bastion of learned graduates. X-versity courses comprise mainly of keyword lists, and logic trees that lead to the appropriate search engine input.

Engineering degrees are compressed into three months, medicine six, law two, and a Bachelor of Arts is knocked out in an afternoon.
-- Texticle, Jan 28 2009

You mean like this? http://en.wikiversi...kiversity:Main_Page
A bit similar. [nineteenthly, Jan 28 2009]

On a related note... Half_20Bachelors_20degree
[normzone, Jan 28 2009]

Re: Wikiversity, as idea was originally named: I just failed my first exam, by not searching the title first.

EDIT: Oh for the love of man - "Googleveristy" exists too?! Your suggestions for a title please.
-- Texticle, Jan 28 2009


I was just Googling that when you edited the title again!

In days of yore, back when my fingers hovered over a VAX terminal keyboard in temptation for accessing this thing called JANET, i used to spend a lot of time in uni libraries. I found them deeply distracting but i was able to achieve the same sort of status as it seems the World Wide Web does nowadays, except that knowledge became broader rather than deeper owing to the lack of info in certain areas without an inter-library loan.

I always felt really guilty about using JANET, so i didn't do it much.
-- nineteenthly, Jan 28 2009


Ontoversity? (Because what you're really learning is the ontology, in the sense of "set of basic categories," of the field.)
-- jutta, Jan 28 2009


That´s a mixed Greek and Latin word. I'd prefer "essentiaversity".
-- nineteenthly, Jan 28 2009


The thing about the motivation to plagiarise or cheat is that it's actually really sad. If you're interested in something, you're unlikely to be motivated to do either because it's just too interesting. So, if you're studying something, cheating strongly suggests you aren't motivated, in which case, why are you doing it? Obviously this applies more to university than school, but in the latter case it's understandable though it probably reflects alienation or coercion.
So, if you're doing it online, are you trying to impress people or what?
-- nineteenthly, Jan 28 2009


It is not so much about cheating per se, because in ‘appearing knowledgeable’, who are you cheating? To be able to calculate drag, or quote Chaucer, without haven’t spent years studying those and related items – is that so despicable?

It is really about a cut-to-the-chase approach to higher learning. Just teaching the bare bones because the details aren’t important. The details aren’t important because these days they are at your fingertips.

Up until the recent past, graduates needed to memorise all the details, so that they could draw upon them in work/study/discussions. No more. The internet holds the details; the graduate needs only to know what details to look for.
-- Texticle, Jan 29 2009


I don't see it as despicable so much as sad, meaning "sad". People don't really want to be doing what they're doing and they're settling for second best, which is sad for them that they seem to have no choice but to do so.

Concerning details, it depends on what you're doing. I make a point of no electrical devices in the consulting room other than light, heat and the otoscope/ophthalmoscope, and i'm dubious about the heat and light to be honest. I wouldn't want to be seen looking away from the patient to a PC or other device because it would undermine their confidence in me and break up the rapport. I can imagine, say, a carpenter, hairdresser or surgeon having quite some difficulty looking up the details. How would you feel about a dentist going off to look something up, leaving you with an open mouth, clamps and the rest?

Also, someone somewhere has to provide the details. Otherwise it's like the mediæval "look it up in Aristotle" approach.
-- nineteenthly, Jan 29 2009


As a proud graduate of this global university (i.e. someone who googles a lot) I don't think it's cheating at all - just as long as I don't try mocking up any certificates, does it matter* if one of my sources of knowledge is internet based rather than print?

*with the proviso that I treat anything I read online with a degree of scepticism - but then, what makes that any different to print?
-- zen_tom, Jan 29 2009


Maybe it should offer a degree in scepticism.
-- nineteenthly, Jan 29 2009


/Also, someone somewhere has to provide the details./

Indeed. Someone, somewhere has to build roads - but that doesn't mean we need to build our own roads every time we want to use the car.
-- Texticle, Jan 29 2009


Also doesn't mean you put a floating bridge on dry ground, or use a corduroy road for a major interstate.
-- FlyingToaster, Jan 30 2009



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